Key Words, Vol. 7/No. 1 (January/February 1999), pp. 1, 6-12. Reprinted with permission

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Cookbook indexing? Piece of cake, you think? Not so fast! Cookbooks are a special genre of literature (yes, literature!) that demand a certain expertise among writers and indexers. There are actually books available on how to write cookbooks¹. So yes, there is an art and a science to it all, both cookbook writing and cookbook indexing. Contrary to popular belief, not just anyone can index a cookbook well.

Why not? A cookbook index is just a list of recipes, isn't it? Well, no, not really. Let's look at what cookbook indexing really demands. First, subject knowledge is important here: you, the cookbook indexer, should also be a cook, not of the Swanson's TV-dinner caliber, but rather of the Julia Child or Alice Waters type. First-hand knowledge of cooking is indispensable, and not just of American or English cooking. Working knowledge of ethnic cuisines is also becoming vital for the cookbook indexer, since many new cookbooks deal with ethnic and cultural aspects of cooking. Memoir cookbooks, becoming more popular in the last few years, infuse an historical flavor to the genre, too.

So what is indexable in a cookbook? Obviously, recipe titles need to be indexed. But here you can run into a number of distinctly different cookbook index styles. Next comes the need to index the recipes by the types of dishes (cakes, etc.), main ingredients, exotic ingredients, and ethnic and cultural origin; and possibly health parameters (low-fat recipes, etc.), meal types, holiday dishes, and cooking methods. Mixed into all of these concerns lie a variety of problems such as foreign words in recipe titles, multiple entries and synonymous terms, cross-references, how to recognize proper names in recipes, and how cooks use indexes.

To summarize, a good cookbook index should include the following indexable items:

• recipe names/titles
• types of dishes (cakes, etc.) or recipe category
• main ingredients
• exotic ingredients
• ethnic dishes under cultural or geographical location headings, where appropriate
• health concerns (low-fat, etc.), where appropriate
• meal types (breakfast, brunch, lunch, snacks, appetizers, supper, dinner, picnic)
• holiday dishes
• cooking methods

In addition, the cookbook indexer must also be concerned with a number of other issues:

• styles of capitalization and pagination in indexes
• alphabetization
• illustrations
• personal names in recipes (e.g., Aunt Helga's Sugar Cookies)
• proper names in indexes (e.g., Newburg, du Barry)
• multiple entries and synonymous terms (e.g,, duxelles = mushrooms)
• cross-references
• foreign words and sorting of foreign articles (e.g., à la, aux)

The first three items in the list above do not demand any knowledge of cooking on your part, but the rest of the items do. Let's go through the cookbook indexing process now, step-by-step.

Indexing the Cookbook: The Step-by-Step Process

The cookbook pages have just arrived and you, the indexer, are eager to begin. But where should you begin? A glance at the title page will usually remind you of the overall focus of the cookbook. A perusal of the table of contents may illustrate the scope of the text. Since many cookbooks generally contain little more than the recipes and a brief note under the recipe title, reading the entire cookbook before starting to enter terms into the computer is not always necessary. However, several passes through the book will be necessary in order to glean the most from the book.

Style

Before a single term is entered into the computer, you must decide (with your editor) what index style you will use². Cookbook indexes are generally arranged in letter-by-letter sorting and in indented style for entries:

Black beans

about

frijoles negros

Oaxaca tostada bites and rice

Black cherry soup

Black currant duck breasts

Black-eyed peas and barley

Black Label

Black sea bass baked in salt crust

Aside from these two predictable pillars of cookbook indexing, there are other aspects that vary according to the wishes of the editor and the author. Capitalization may be as given in the example above, called modified lowercase style, in which only the first word of the main entry is capitalized. Another possibility includes a formal style, in which all words in main entries (except for articles, coordinating conjunctions, and prepositions) are capitalized, as are all subheadings that are recipe names. Information about a recipe or food is not capitalized:

Black Beans

about

Frijoles Negros

Oaxaca Tostada Bites and Rice

Black Cherry Soup

Black Currant Duck Breasts

Black-Eyed Peas and Barley

Black Label

Black Sea Bass Baked in Salt Crust

Another possibility is the modified uppercase style, in which all recipe titles are capitalized, but other main entries are not:

black beans

about

Frijoles Negros

Oaxaca Tostada Bites and Rice

Black Cherry Soup

Black Currant Duck Breasts

Black-Eyed Peas and Barley

Black Label

Black Sea Bass Baked in Salt Crust

The next option is the informal style, in which only proper names are capitalized:

black beans

about

frijoles negros

Oaxaca tostada bites and rice

black cherry soup

black currant duck breasts

black-eyed peas and barley

Black Label

Black Sea bass baked in salt crust

Last is the currently popular style which lists the recipe names/titles as given, with no inversions:

Lemons

Lemon Curd

Spicy Lemon Oil

Whole Preserved Lemons

The problem with this style is that it takes up more space in the index than other styles; it also ignores the need to put like ingredients near each other in the subheadings. Another example of this style is:

Pies

Apple-Cranberry Pie

Aunt Jenny's Rhubarb Pie

Chiffon Pumpkin Pie

Deep-Dish Apple Pie

Rhubarb-Raspberry Pie

Thanksgiving Pumpkin Pie

Warm Apple Pie with Cheddar Cheese

Rhubarb, apple, and pumpkin are scattered throughout the subheadings. As a cook, I do not find this style useful, and when editors ask me to do an index this way, I point out its shortcomings in terms of index space and usability.

Page Numbers

Whitman and Simon state that using inclusive numbers (for example, 323-25) takes up too much space and that the cookbook user only needs to know the page on which the recipe starts. They suggest that using page ranges is only necessary when text, and not recipes, is indexed³. As a cook, I do not agree with this, because if a recipe is long, spanning several pages, I want to know that before I commit to the recipe. If a recipe is long, it usually means "time-consuming" and therefore won't do for a quick supper. Indexes that allow me to determine this information without taking the time to turn to the recipe are much more useful to me.

In some text-rich cookbooks, such as memoir cookbooks, page numbers for recipes can be set in bold type to ensure that the user does not look up something for which there is only discussion and no recipe.

Recipe Names and Main Ingredients

Indexing recipe names can be straightforward when it is a question of the type of dish and a main ingredient:

Pumpkin pie

Pie

Pumpkin

But most frequently, more comes into play. What happens when you index Lentil and Sultana Salad? In this case, there are two equally important main ingredients:

Lentil(s)

and sultana salad

Raisin(s)

lentil and sultana salad

Salad(s)

lentil and sultana

Sultanas. See Raisin(s)

(This example points to another style decision, that of the "s" being enclosed in parentheses. Some editors like the style and others loathe it.)

Or take deviled chicken with mustard coating, an example of cooking styles:

Chicken

deviled

Deviled chicken with mustard coating

Mustard

coating for deviled chicken

If there were more than one deviled dish in the cookbook, a heading of "deviled dishes" might be useful if you have unlimited space for the index, not the usual occurrence.

When cooking methods are included in recipe names, the cooking method is usually the subheading, or is inverted if there is only one entry in the index:

Pork

chops, sautéed

Pork chops, sautéed

Lentil(s)

patties, deep-fried

Lentil patties, deep-fried

Fennel, braised

Another aspect of cookbook indexing concerns the cooking method and the main ingredient:

Beef

Ginger-Cured, Cambodian

Grilled, with Dipping Sauce

Grilled, with Lemongrass Paste

Marinated, with Lime Sauce

Stew, Sweet

Stir-Fried, with Bitter Melon

Stir-Fried, with Chinese Celery

Stir-Fried, with Pineapple

If you are lucky, your editor might give you the option of having two levels of subheadings as in:

Beef

Ginger-Cured, Cambodian

Grilled

with Dipping Sauce

with Lemongrass Paste

Marinated, with Lime Sauce

Stew, Sweet

Stir-Fried

with Bitter Melon

with Chinese Celery

with Pineapple

This of course saves the repetition found in the previous example. However, in my experience with multi-level cookbook indexes, this format sometimes makes it more difficult to quickly grasp what it is that is being, for example, stir-fried. There is an extra step there, which is to find the words "Stir-Fried" and then to move the eye over and down. If the print is small, this format can be less desirable. However, in some cases sub-subheadings can be very useful, as in the following:

Bread soups

Acquacotta

from the Casentino

with ricotta, from Monte Amiata

with Wild Mushrooms

Ribollita

Tomato-Bread Soup

When space is crucial, run-in subheadings can be substituted for the usual indented style.

This discussion must also include a comment on the growing tendency to include many terms in thc recipe name/title that might appear to be indexable but probably are not. For example, in the recipe Baked Mexican Bananas with Cinnamon, cinnamon is a minor ingredient and there is therefore no need to index the recipe under cinnamon. Another example is that of Chinese Dumplings with Chives and Ginger, in which chives are not a major ingredient in the recipe and neither is ginger. Depending on the type of cookbook, however, it might be useful in some cases to index "chives" or "ginger," in the case of an herb cookbook or a book on spices, respectively.

Multiple Entries and Synonymous Terms

This is where knowledge of cooking becomes crucial:

Appetizers

hummus

Chickpeas

hummus

Dips and spreads

hummus

Garbanzos. See Chickpeas

Hummus

Middle Eastern dishes

hummus

Spreads. See Dips and spreads

Here you have meal type (appetizers), main ingredient (chickpeas), cross-references (dips and spreads, garbanzos, spreads), recipe name (Hummus), and cultural or ethnic divisions (Middle Eastern dishes). Knowledge of cultural culinary terminology becomes increasingly important as greater numbers of international cookbooks are published. (A number of resources are listed at the end of this article, which will assist with culinary terminology.)

Personal and Proper Names in Recipes

Personal and proper names in recipes are quite common. Attributions are usually not indexed by name. Toll-House Cookies, Mornay Sauce, and Parker House Rolls are all common recipe names and should be indexed as such. On the other hand, Aunt Helga's Sugar Cookies or Luigi's Bean Soup should preferably be treated as follows:

Cookies

sugar, Aunt Helga's

Bean(s)

soup, Luigi's

Soup(s)

bean, Luigi's

If space permits, the titles could be indexed as they are given, but most index users will look for the ingredient or the type of dish first unless they have read the cookbook or used the recipe before.

Exotic Ingredients

Make it a practice to read each recipe in depth, pulling out and indexing ingredients that are considered exotic. Why? If a cook has to buy an expensive special ingredient for a recipe, he or she will want to know how else to use that ingredient before the mold grows on it or it dries up. Exotic can be olives, anchovies, goat cheeses, fresh herbs, tapioca or potato starches, unusual grains like spelt or teff, roasted fish powder (yes!), etc.

Cross-References

Under the section above, "Multiple Entries and Synonymous Terms," the index user is referred from garbanzos to chickpeas, the preferred term. Other examples of the use of see references might include:

Soups

stocks (see Stocks)

Stocks

beef

chicken

fish

vegetable

Broad entries like "Fruit" or "Vegetables" might merit the following see reference:

Fruit. See also specific fruits

choosing fresh

dried

salads

See also references refer the index user to similar ingredients or dishes:

Cornmeal. See also Polenta

storing

stuffings

Polenta

fried

sauces for

with three cheeses

Foreign Words and Recipe Names

Foreign recipe names can be italicized, but a simpler method is to leave all index entries in roman type. Some publishers require that both the foreign and English titles be indexed with the translation in parentheses after the main entry:

Black beans and rice (Moros y cristianos)

Moros y cristianos (Black beans and rice)

Putting translations into subheadings can get messy, so it is better to choose either the foreign version or the English version and consistently include those in the appropriate subheadings. One way to handle this is:

Italian dishes

focaccia

insalata d'estate

marinara sauce

minestrone

risotto con salsicce e fagioli borlotti

Or, use both English headings and Italian headings with the appropriate language in the subheadings. If the audience for the cookbook is not thought to have language ability and if the recipe names are given in both the language and English, the English version should be given in the subheadings.

Alternatively, recipe titles in the foreign language can simply be written out as such, with the entire recipe name as the entry. Of course, if the language is such that several of the recipes begin with the same term, you may wind up with:

Bai Domnap Muk B'kong (Sticky Rice Topped with Shellfish)

Bai K'dong (Crispy Rice)

Bai K'dong K'tum (Rice Cake Treat)

Bai Laen B'kong (Shrimp-Fried Rice)

Bai Laen K'dom (Fried Rice with Crabmeat)

This not an ideal situation, because it would be nice to have a well-structured index in both English and the foreign language (in this case Cambodian). An unknown language makes it difficult for the indexer to be sure that the right term is being chosen, under which speakers of that language would look. Would it be Bai (rice)? Where would the cooking terms go (Laen, etc.)? And what about K'dong or K'dom or K'tum? This is not a common problem, but as more and more ethnic cookbooks get published, more indexers will be faced with this situation.

Another point to keep in mind is the presence of articles, coordinating conjunctions, and prepositions in recipes with foreign names; these function words should be ignored where appropriate in sorting:

Risotto

col cavolo rosso e la pancetta

coi fagiolini verdi e il peperone giallo

alla friulana col rosmarino e vino bianco

con salsicce e fagioli borlotti

Other similar such terms include:

"in the manner of"

à la (French)

au (French)

aux (French)

"with"

avec (French)

con (Spanish, Italian)

mit (German)

"and"

e (Italian)

et (French)

und (German)

y (Spanish)

The Process Summarized

Use the criteria given in the previous sections as guidelines. Set up the indexing software to format the index according to the criteria given to you by the publisher. Start indexing by examining recipe names, selecting main entries for main ingredients, and determining recipe categories and meal types (if appropriate). Then select ethnic and cultural headings (if appropriate), make cross-references where necessary, and clarify any foreign words and their alphabetization.

A Last Word on How Cooks Use Indexes

Many cooks shop by the season or the weekly special–in other words, they may not know what they're cooking until they get it home from the market and on the counter-top. Let's say hamburger was on special, so "Ground beef" might be one way to find something new to cook ("I am not going to make spaghetti again this week!") or perhaps some Indian spices caught the cook's eye, so "Indian dishes" would be scanned before "Keema" would be. On a hot day, the main entry "Salads'' might be where the cook would look; I mean, who wants to make Coq au Vin when it's 90 degrees outside and the air conditioner just quit? To put it simply, think about what the cook wants, what she/he needs in a hurry, and in as many scenarios as you can imagine. Then make the index fit those scenarios.

Thérèse Shere adds:

A very critical difference between cookbook indexes and other indexes, I think, is that cookbook indexes are used over and over by the same reader to find the same entry. What this means to me is that it is more important than ever not to penalize the reader for knowing exactly what they're looking for. I want to find Red Lentil Soup with Lime under "R" and Upside-Down cake under "U" when I look them up twice a month! In other words, cooks will use an index to browse when they don't know what they're going to make, but more commonly they will be looking up a specific dish they have made before. One implication of this is when you don't have room to double-post, I think it's better to put recipe titles under the most specific ingredient name and then cross-reference from the general to the specific:

Green beans

in Mixed Summer Vegetables

for Saint Anne's Day

Beans. See Fava beans; Green beans

and not have

Beans, green

in Mixed Summer Vegetables

for Saint Anne's Day

In other words, "Keema," as referred to above, had better be in the index on its own, and not just under "Beef, ground."

What it boils down to is choices, choices, and more choices. The indexer has many choices to make. Cookbook indexing a piece of cake? Not really, but you do get an early crack at all those new cake recipes!

NOTES

1. For examples, see Barbara Gibbs Ostmann and Jane L. Baker, The Recipe Writer's Handbook (New York: John Wiley, 1997); Joan Whitman and Dolores Simon, Recipes Into Type (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1993); and Judith Comfort, Writing Cookbooks (Bellingham, WA: Self-Counsel Press, 1997).

2. Recipes into Type, pp. 135-37.

3. Recipes into Type, p. 138.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Great and special thanks are due to Thérèse Shere and Elinor Lindheimer, who read the draft of this article and made substantial comments and additions to the text.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Cynthia D. Bertelsen, a nutritionist, librarian, and historian, indexes medical books and journals full-time. Food- and nutrition-related subjects are her preferred specialty, but she also indexes a wide range of other subjects. After 15 years of living and working in various developing countries, she went to library school and learned about indexing as a career possibility. In her "spare" time, she writes articles about indexing and cuisine; cooks and designs menus from her 1,500-volume cookbook collection; and is active in her Catholic parish and in the American Society for Indexing. She lives in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia with her husband Mike, her son Erik, and two cats, Wags and Jane.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: TERMINOLOGY RESOURCES FOR COOKBOOK INDEXERS

Often the cookbook indexer needs to verify a term, find a series of alternative terms, or clarify a term. The following resources, online and print, can help in those circumstances.

Online Resources

Web sites are constantly changing. These sites were operational and useful as of January 1, 1999. Titles of Web sites are quoted directly. [Webmistress' note: Dead links could not be found. A few links have been changed to reflect current paths.]

ABC of Arabic Cuisine:

Beer Term Dictionary:

Bread and Baking Glossary:

Cajun CookingTerms:

Chocolate and Baking Terminology Glossary:

Cooking Dictionary:

Cooking Glossary:

The Cook's Thesaurus:

Culinary Terms Glossary:

Eating Dictionary, by Gourmet magazine:

English-American Recipe Translator:

Japanese Food Glossary:

Middle Eastern Ingredients Description and Cross Reference Index:

Poultry Glossary:

Science of Foods Glossary:

Scottish Food and Drink:

Spice Encyclopedia:

Spice Indexes:

Swedish-French-English Gastronomic Glossary:

Vegetables, Asian:

Vegetable Glossary:

Vegetarian Glossary:

Wine-Tasting Terminology:

Print Resources

Additional resources for foreign language terms include excellent general cookbooks such as those written by Marcella Hazan and Julia Child, among others.

Allison, Sonia. The Cassell Food Dictionary. New York: Cassell, 1990. [op]

Anderson, Kenneth N. International Dictionary of Food & Nutrition. New York: Wiley, 1993.

Achaya, K.T. A Historical Dictionary of Indian Food. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Barnette, Martha. Ladyfingers & Nun's Tummies: A Feast for Language Lovers. New York: Times Books, 1997.

Bartlett, Jonathan. The Cook's Dictionary and Culinary Reference. Chicago: NTC/Contemporary Books, 1996. Well-written guide to 3,000 terms. Cross-references are given in capitalized roman type.

Bloom, Carole. The International Dictionary of Desserts, Pastries, and Confections. New York: William Morrow, 1995. Over 800 baking terms included. Cross-references to related terms are included.

Claiborne, Craig. Craig Claiborne's The New York Times Food Encyclopedia. New York: Times Books, 1985. Over 1,000 entries for a wide range of food words.

Del Conte, Anna. Gastronomy of Italy. New York: Prentice Hall, 1987. With 1,200 entries, this well-illustrated book describes terms and gives English words for the Italian terms, too.

Hering, Richard. Hering's Dictionary of Classical and Modern Cookery. Rotherham, UK: Virtue, 1994.

Hosking, Richard. A Dictionary of Japanese Food Ingredients and Culture. Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1996. A unique source of information on Japanese food and cooking terms for non-Japanese speakers. Cross-references are in boldface type.

Igoe, Robert S. and Hui, Y. H. Dictionary of Food Ingredients.

Jacobs, Jay. The Eaten Word. The Language of Food, the Food in Our Language. New York: Birch Lane Press, 1995. Discusses English food terms, for alternative terms.

Labensky, Steven et al. Webster's New World Dictionary of Culinary Arts. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1997. Probably the most comprehensive and up-to-date culinary dictionary available. Short definitions for over 16,000 terms. Some cross-references given.

Lang, Jenifer Harvey. Larousse Gastronomique. The New American Edition of the World's Greatest Culinary Encyclopedia. New York: Crown, 1988. Focusing chiefly on French cuisine, the "new" Larousse does include more ethnic terms than previous editions. One of the best culinary terminology resources available.

Livingston, A. D. and Livingston, Helen, ed. Edible Plants and Animals: Unusual Foods from Aardvark to Zamia

Luce, Bernard. Dictionnaire gastronomique, Française/Anglais. Paris: La Maison du Dictionnaire, 1997.

Manjón, Maite. The Gastronomy of Spain and Portugal. New York: Prentice Hall, 1990.With 1,000 entries, this well-illustrated book describes terms and gives English words for the Spanish and Portugese terms.

Mariani, John F. The Dictionary of American Food and Drink. New York: Hearst Books, 1994. Mariani includes over 2,000 terms for American food and drink.

------. The Dictionary of Italian Food and Drink. New York: Broadway Books, 1998. Mariani includes 2,300 terms for Italian food and drink.

Miller, Mark. The Great Chile Book. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press, 1991. Descriptions and photographs of 90 chiles from the world over.

Norman, Jill. The Complete Book of Spices: A Practical Guide to Spices and Aromatic Seeds. New York: Penguin, 1991. Descriptions and photographs of spices.

Ortiz, Elizabeth Lambert. Encyclopedia of Herbs, Spices, and Flavorings: A Cook's Compendium. New York: Dorling Kindersley, 1993.

Riely, Elizabeth. The Chef's Companion: A Concise Dictionary of Culinary Terms. 2nd edition. New York: Wiley, 1996. Cross-references are given in boldface type and the book includes a wide range of ethnic cooking terms.

Root, Waverly. Food. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1980. Detailed essays on 200 common foods. Abbreviations are explained (e.g., HE represents both heart and herring).

Schneider, Elizabeth. Uncommon Fruits and Vegetables: A Commonsense Guide. New York: Harper and Row, 1989. A compendium of exotic fruits and vegetables. Scientific names are included, as well as other terms by which the foods are commonly known.

Sinclair, Charles. International Dictionary of Food and Cooking. New York: Peter Collin Publishers, 1998.

Solomon, Charmaine. Charmaine Solomon's Encyclopedia of Asian Food, 1998.

Von Welanetz, Diana and Paul. The Von Welanetz Guide to Ethnic Ingredients. New York: Warner Books, 1982. Descriptions and cross-references to over 1,000 ethnic food ingredients.